My memories of pheasant are back from my childhood. Quite often there would be a brace of pheasants hanging in our garage before mum would take them down, pluck and prepare them. The smell then used to put me off.
Recently I visited Petersham Nursery in Richmond to do some cooking on the Big Green Egg with Damian and Joe, two of the chefs there. They brought out a pheasant to cook along with some other game birds. We cooked it this way and I have to say it was delicious.
Give this a whirl, it’s easy, relatively cheap and makes a lovely difference from a boring old chicken.
Ingredients
- 1 pheasant
- Sprigs of thyme or rosemary
- Sprinkle of Maldon salt
- Olive oil to rub on the pheasant
Method
- Rub the skin of the pheasant with olive oil and sprinkle with the salt.
- Place the herbs into the birds cavity.
- Setup your EGG to cook indirectly at 180-200C, cooking on either the plate setter or a half moon ceramic plancha (as shown in the photos).
- Once the EGG is up to temperature and the ceramic surface heated through, place the pheasant breast side down. Brown each side for minutes before turning.
- Cook for about 20 minutes.
If you have a digital thermometer check the meat has reached 72C at it’s thickest part.
Serve whole or take the breasts off and cut into pieces crossways.